The Ashes: Andy Flower must find a remedy to England’s first-innings flaws

Right man for the job: Andy Flower can turn England around (Picture: Getty)

If there’s one man capable of taking the emotion out of an occasion such as this and focusing on the cold, hard facts of England’s batting deficiencies it’s their coach Andy Flower.

The Zimbabwean will need to be as clinical as a coroner when he examines just why his side again failed to deliver in the first innings of a series.

There’s no doubt Australia have beefed up their bowling attack since the last time these sides met in the winter of 2010-11.

James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc are both new to Test cricket but impressed on their Ashes debuts.

Peter Siddle, who took a hat-trick in the last Ashes opener in Brisbane two-and-a-half years ago, was up to his old tricks too, taking four wickets in the afternoon session on his way to his eighth Test five-wicket haul.

Poor: England suffered a batting collapse (Picture: AFP)

Yet for all the talent in Australia’s bowling armoury, England were their own worst enemy as lapses in concentration and poor shot selection gifted the tourists at least seven of their wickets.

Yes, the overhead conditions were helpful for seam bowlers but only Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and, perhaps, Jonathan Trott were not guilty of throwing away their wickets.

If this sounds familiar then that’s probably because we discussed all this back in February when a significantly less talented New Zealand attack rolled England out for 167 in Dunedin.

India did likewise in the the first innings of the series in Ahmedabad back in November. England’s first-innings scores in 2013 read as thus: 167, 465, 204, 232, 354, 215.

If they continue in that vein over the course of this summer then forget a 5-0 whitewash.

Heck, Australia might even have a live chance of returning the urn after all.

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